Circular seating arrangements in conference rooms provide an advantage in allowing participants to interact and communicate more comfortably with everyone in the room. In fact, in a conference room where people meet in a circle, they are able to interact with each other better than in a traditional rectangular conference room. Each person can see other individuals in the room equally without having to turn their heads to see someone in the circle. To capture this interaction for video conferencing, a 360 degree or wide angle camera may be placed in the middle of the group of participants. However, when the camera is not needed, such as when the video conference session has ended, the camera must either be disconnected or physically removed so as to be out of sight and to ensure the participants they are no longer being recorded.
Accordingly, what is needed is a retractable 360 degree camera device.